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Armed police and burning effigies marked the release of the latest Bollywood blockbuster yesterday after Hindu radicals threatened to attack cinemas in Mumbai because of its star’s pro-Pakistan stance.

Many cinemas cancelled screenings of My Name Is Khan after the Shiv Sena, an ultra-nationalist political party with a history of violence, called for the film to be boycotted.

Police chiefs deployed 21,000 officers to maintain order on the streets of India’s film capital. About 2,000 Shiv Sena activists were detained.

The unrest came after Shah Rukh Khan — Bollywood’s Brad Pitt — lamented that no cricket players from Pakistan were